veepstakes

What Does Carly Fiorina Have on Ted Cruz?

Perhaps you’re still feeling the energy, or “jolt,” as The New York Times put it, from Ted Cruz’s announcement yesterday that Carly Fiorina would be his vice presidential choice, should he win the nomination. Not since the announcement that George Pataki was leaving the race has a development so captivated a news cycle. The team at National Review, a mostly Cruz-supporting outlet, gamely tried to think through Cruz’s calculations, beyond hoping to appeal to the disgraced-millionaire-tech-executive voting segment. Fiorina, musedJim Geraghty, “has the best chance of any potential running mate to negate presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s political strengths.” Dan McLaughlincame up with “Cruz gets a day’s worth of headlines.” The rest of us might be forgiven for saying, “Wait, what?”

Let’s be clear about the problem. Cruz’s move makes no sense. First, he is still running against Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, so he doesn’t need an anti-Hillary helper. Second, Fiorina is beloved by no one, except maybe her real estate agent. She has won no political office, and she polls poorly, with her unfavorable ratings among Republicans last December at 47 percent, over twice her favorable ones, at 20 percent. Third, the only hope for Cruz to win a nomination is to force a second vote at a contested Republican convention this summer, a plan that requires keeping options open for deal making, especially when it comes to giving away a prize like a vice presidential nomination. For someone with a brilliant approach to collecting delegates, as Cruz’s team has demonstrated, announcing a mediocre vice presidential candidate does nothing but close off options. Who thinks that fence-sitting delegates will be drawn to Cruz by the magic of Fiorina? Probably only Fiorina, and maybe not even her.

Since last summer, the Carly-Ted relationship has been consistently strange. In the first half of 2015, one of Cruz’s super-PACs donated half a million dollars to CARLY for America, the main group supporting Fiorina. Why? No one knows, which is why the Federal Election Commission decided to look into the matter. “I don't find it particularly unusual,” was Fiorina’s response when asked about the transaction recently by Fox’s Megyn Kelly, “but I don't know the particulars of it.” That clears things up: it was just the world’s most impartial Cruz PAC.

In any case, if that donation inspired Fiorina to love Cruz, she didn’t let it show. “Ted Cruz is just like any other politician,” she said earlier this year. “He says whatever he needs to say to get elected.” Cruz, for his part, didn’t seem inspired to hit back. Perhaps it was because he could find no fault in Fiorina, who is perfection in his eyes. Or perhaps not.

In early March, when Marco Rubio was obviously finished, Fiorina endorsed Cruz. This made sense. If you didn’t want Trump, then only Cruz was really left. But her manner of working with him was peculiar. A few weeks later, when Cruz took a question from a reporter about an absurdly flimsy hit piece in the National Enquirer alleging that Cruz has had multiple former mistresses, Cruz was well-nigh elbowed aside by Fiorina, who decided to answer the question for him, while Cruz looked on, nonplussed. As political consultants always say, if you’re asked about your marriage, just hand the microphone to someone next to you, like the former head of Hewlett-Packard. It looks natural.

In her book Tough Choices, Fiorina writes, “Never threaten if you’re not prepared to follow through.” When Fiorina was head of HP, she allegedly frightened Deutsche Bank, a major shareholder and also provider of their financial services, into switching its vote on an acquisition deal, using means that some contended were blackmail. She also implied she’d resign if the deal didn’t get approved. And she apparently scared HP enough that it put up no fight on paying her millions to go away nicely. Maybe she’s somehow so frightening to Ted Cruz that he has to have her by his side. Since Cruz frightens everyone else, they’ve got something in common.

Still, it’s a mystery. Fiorina has a Cruz-like knack for back-room knife fights, and this deal with Cruz has that knife-y aura about it. But the arrangement is more elaborate than a handful of people understand. It’ll be a while before we figure out what it was. Twitter, if course, has the answer: it’s blackmail. It’s certainly the most interesting answer. But it’s hard to imagine Fiorina getting a vice-presidential nod merely for offering her silence. That such speculation thrives is probably because she offers so little else.

These Vintage Campaign Photos Show Politics Has Always Been a Wild Ride

John Kerry after the Democratic National Convention at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on July 29, 2004.

“The Boston Pops were playing along with fireworks and James Taylor was performing onstage. John Edwards’s and Kerry’s handlers were negotiating who’s going to go onstage first. The candidates definitely had their off-stage and onstage personas, and as a photographer I call it ‘getting behind the blue curtain.’”

Photo: Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Kerry after an event in Jefferson City, Missouri, on August 5, 2004, during a “Believe in America” tour.

“This was a spontaneous event, it wasn’t supposed to happen. I was in the right place at the right time. After the event there was scheduled filing time, which allows the media to file their work from the day. The band was playing as Kerry was moved from one room to the other, and I guess he just couldn’t help himself, and he just picked up a guitar and started playing. I happened to be the only one there because everybody was filing. That’s who Kerry is; he’s the life of the party, a very social man. I was waiting there for the chance that he would do that.”

Photo: Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Hillary Clinton leaving an event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in July 2007.

“Hillary’s one of the tough ones because she’s got photographers that are longtime, social friends, and so they’re going to get access and people that she doesn’t know aren’t. She’s got a very controlling campaign, so every other photographer was back in the designated area. I wasn’t supposed to be in this area, but she saw me, smiled, and waved to nobody, then quickly shot the look of death to the staffer who let me in.”

Photo: Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

John Edwards at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on August 16, 2007.

“This was a miserable day. It was over 100 degrees, heavy humidity, so as a photographer you think, What’s my best opportunity to make one picture in any given situation? This is just a handshake picture unless you concentrate on what makes it different: the campaign picture and the pen, media is surrounding him, and he’s got a wireless mike on him. You have to look for your best chance to make a lasting image. There’s always some little aspect you can capitalize on.”

Photo: Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

A pro-Bush rally outside the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, in November 2000.

“This is after the general election that just went on for ever and ever. Bush was still the governor of Texas, so he was going into the office every day, but I think this was a staged event on a Saturday. So I see this picture and I start making this image and I realize this is actually a senior staff member of Bush’s campaign, who I’d only ever seen in a business suit. That was funny.”

Photo: Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Dennis Kucinich supporters before a Democratic debate in Durham, New Hampshire, on December 9, 2003.

“The Kucinich people are the most fun and they always have this traveling drum circle. I was trying to make a fun picture as we were waiting for the debate to start. It’s no big deal as an image—what you see is what you get—but it’s interesting from a composition standpoint, and there’s a nice light on there. Kucinich is a nice guy. He’s like Dole—hard to shake and very comfortable in his own skin. I was introduced to him at a rally one night and the funny thing is, often you get behind the blue curtain and it’s all talking and you’re part of the conversation, which is helpful for a writer, but as a photographer it’s very frustrating because you want to be ignored so you can observe and make pictures!”

Photo: Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

George H.W. Bush during the general election in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 28, 1988.

“I wasn’t supposed to be on the tarmac here as Bush is vice president and running for president at the time but I knew a press guy on his campaign and I was literally just a kid and he took pity on me. I like this image because it kind of tricks your eye. Because of the flatness of the light and the time of day Bush is almost like this cardboard cutout that someone’s carrying. The composition is nice; the six heads behind him of the Secret Service agents and the priest (who was the president of Boys Town at the time) come together to make a complicated image. And there are little hints, like the banner, and the boom mike, and you can see a couple of American flags, which tell you that this is a campaign event. If Bush’s head wasn’t framed between the guys directly behind him and if his arm was in a different place, the whole composition would be off and the photograph would be wrong to the eye.”

Photo: Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

John Kerry after the Democratic National Convention at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on July 29, 2004.

“The Boston Pops were playing along with fireworks and James Taylor was performing onstage. John Edwards’s and Kerry’s handlers were negotiating who’s going to go onstage first. The candidates definitely had their off-stage and onstage personas, and as a photographer I call it ‘getting behind the blue curtain.’”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Kerry after an event in Jefferson City, Missouri, on August 5, 2004, during a “Believe in America” tour.

“This was a spontaneous event, it wasn’t supposed to happen. I was in the right place at the right time. After the event there was scheduled filing time, which allows the media to file their work from the day. The band was playing as Kerry was moved from one room to the other, and I guess he just couldn’t help himself, and he just picked up a guitar and started playing. I happened to be the only one there because everybody was filing. That’s who Kerry is; he’s the life of the party, a very social man. I was waiting there for the chance that he would do that.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Hillary Clinton leaving an event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in July 2007.

“Hillary’s one of the tough ones because she’s got photographers that are longtime, social friends, and so they’re going to get access and people that she doesn’t know aren’t. She’s got a very controlling campaign, so every other photographer was back in the designated area. I wasn’t supposed to be in this area, but she saw me, smiled, and waved to nobody, then quickly shot the look of death to the staffer who let me in.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

John Edwards at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on August 16, 2007.

“This was a miserable day. It was over 100 degrees, heavy humidity, so as a photographer you think, What’s my best opportunity to make one picture in any given situation? This is just a handshake picture unless you concentrate on what makes it different: the campaign picture and the pen, media is surrounding him, and he’s got a wireless mike on him. You have to look for your best chance to make a lasting image. There’s always some little aspect you can capitalize on.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Barack Obama during a Democratic debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on January 5, 2008.

“This is the main filing center where everybody watches the debate and they all have their laptops out. The new thing at the time was small video cameras. Everyone was shooting videos all the time, which was a new phenomenon, and that took over the campaign in 2008.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

On the street waiting for a candidate to show up in Concord, New Hampshire, in January 2008.

“This wasn’t Ron Paul’s or Hillary’s campaign headquarters, and that’s Ronald Reagan in the window. This was a spontaneous rally, which happens all the time in New Hampshire. Everybody shows up to everything there. As a photographer, looking at the people that make up the political process is something you can overlook. You’re trying to make pictures of the politician when you turn around and realize there are just as good, or better, pictures behind you. They might not show the actual candidate, but they’re meaningful.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Bob Dole leaving an event in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in October 1996.

“I love this type of picture where you have the bright spotlights on but it’s still behind the scenes, which speaks to the complex and weird nature of a campaign. You’ve got the Secret Service and the campaign staffers and the rally paraphernalia, and this person who is the reason all this is happening, but they’re also very separate from and isolated by this event that they’re the centerpiece of.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Jesse Jackson at an event at the black-history museum in Greenville, South Carolina, 1987.

“This is a good one. It’s for a New York Times magazine cover piece on Jackson and I hadn’t done anything behind the scenes with a candidate at that point. I was young, probably around 20 years old, and I got three or four days to travel with him with very close, personal access. The museum was a converted residential home and was packed inside, so I sat outside on the porch as I figured there wasn’t going to be a picture. I heard Jackson start to tear up, pushed my way to the front to see this amazing scene. Not only is he emotional but you’ve also got this statue on the wall so the picture just came together. It made itself.”

“This was a unique opportunity that’s really hard to get nowadays—a storytelling moment with four different candidates in it. It’s crazy to even think that you could make an image that has this weird visual narrative happening, but that also works as a photo as far as its composition. There’s tension there; there’s a story behind it.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Dole at an event in Louisiana, 1996.

“Dole’s campaign had a campaign plane and a ‘zoo’ plane. Traditionally, all the staff and mainstream media ride on the campaign plane with the candidate and the technicians, photographers, and cameramen go on the ‘zoo’ plane, which was more relaxed. The campaign plane broke down so everyone crowded onto the ‘zoo’ plane, and I don’t think there were even enough seats. Back then you could still smoke on planes, so the cabin was filled with blue cigar smoke. Several guys grabbed plates of BBQ so there was also this Cajun feast in the back of the plane and Dole was stuck onboard with everyone. You couldn’t even move from one side to the other it was so crowded. The thing with Dole that people never really realize is the guy has an amazing sense of humor. He’s a very relaxed politician; you never see him nervous and he was always quick with a joke. He was pretty relaxed about the whole situation. Nowadays, they’ve really taken a lot of fun out of the process.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Before a Pat Robertson victory party on Super Tuesday, March 8, 1988, in Atlanta, Georgia.

“This was one of those weird situations. I saw these boys dressed identically and started to make some pictures and immediately their mother comes in to stage-manage the scene. She was helping to set up the picture and it actually makes a better photograph with her in it. Those hats are probably sitting in an attic somewhere to this day; they’re like trophies. The presidential race is such a unique American experience. It’s a traveling circus.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

George W. Bush leaving a press conference in Iowa, in 2000.

“It’s my philosophy to be in the wrong place, so to be out of place in the hallway where you might not make a picture as opposed to being inside the press conference where you are going to make a picture. In the magazine world you have to make a picture that has some legs and that can last a couple of weeks. If you’re a newspaper or wire photographer you have to have a picture every hour but it’s going to be replaced by the thing you shoot an hour later. It’s a different type of pressure. The reporter in the photograph actually died in the second Gulf War. He was riding with an Air Training Command doing live reports for 30 straight hours and he got a blood clot in his leg from not moving. He was a good reporter. Here, he’s trying to corner Bush and get some kind of answer out of him.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

A pro-Bush rally outside the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, in November 2000.

“This is after the general election that just went on for ever and ever. Bush was still the governor of Texas, so he was going into the office every day, but I think this was a staged event on a Saturday. So I see this picture and I start making this image and I realize this is actually a senior staff member of Bush’s campaign, who I’d only ever seen in a business suit. That was funny.”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

Dennis Kucinich supporters before a Democratic debate in Durham, New Hampshire, on December 9, 2003.

“The Kucinich people are the most fun and they always have this traveling drum circle. I was trying to make a fun picture as we were waiting for the debate to start. It’s no big deal as an image—what you see is what you get—but it’s interesting from a composition standpoint, and there’s a nice light on there. Kucinich is a nice guy. He’s like Dole—hard to shake and very comfortable in his own skin. I was introduced to him at a rally one night and the funny thing is, often you get behind the blue curtain and it’s all talking and you’re part of the conversation, which is helpful for a writer, but as a photographer it’s very frustrating because you want to be ignored so you can observe and make pictures!”

Photograph by Kenneth Jarecke/Contact Press Images.

George H.W. Bush during the general election in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 28, 1988.

“I wasn’t supposed to be on the tarmac here as Bush is vice president and running for president at the time but I knew a press guy on his campaign and I was literally just a kid and he took pity on me. I like this image because it kind of tricks your eye. Because of the flatness of the light and the time of day Bush is almost like this cardboard cutout that someone’s carrying. The composition is nice; the six heads behind him of the Secret Service agents and the priest (who was the president of Boys Town at the time) come together to make a complicated image. And there are little hints, like the banner, and the boom mike, and you can see a couple of American flags, which tell you that this is a campaign event. If Bush’s head wasn’t framed between the guys directly behind him and if his arm was in a different place, the whole composition would be off and the photograph would be wrong to the eye.”